Wait, We Can Be Jedi?
by Dragonfire1214
Summary: This is the journey of two teen girls plucked from their normal lives and tossed into the Star Wars universe. When Luke goes missing, they are the only two that can save him, but they have their own share of trials and temptations to get over first.
1. Earth Shattering Realizations

**Disclaimer!**

Hey, guess what? All the characters and settings from Star Wars are owned by George Lucas, in case you didn't know. Mary and Katie are real people, and yes, we are the ones who wrote this. Go dual authors! Anyway, have fun reading, and may the Force be with you, always. (giggle, giggle, snort)

-----

**Chapter I: Earth Shattering Realizations**

A long, long time ago, or maybe just last week, in a small house in the midst of Orange County…

It was the second time she had heard that shuffling by the window that night. Katie sat up in her bed and looked around in the half-asleep state that you are in when you have been aroused from a dead sleep. Dismissing the sound as a manifestation of her overly worried brain she laid back down and attempted to go back to sleep.

"If only I didn't have that huge grade-making final tomorrow," she muttered and tried to find sleep once more.

Katie was one of the kids at school labeled as a "brain". The truth was she hated high school and hated studying. Being a sophomore she had two more years to look forward to: not a very promising future. The reputation as a "brain" gave her the only respect she could get; if you call being talked about behind your back respect. Katie wanted nothing more than a life with more adventure: a life of meaning. The only one who had understood that had been a friend she had been parted from two years ago.

There was the sound of the door trying to be opened and this time she knew it was not her mind playing tricks on her because of stress. Katie felt around her bed as best she could when she heard footsteps in the foyer. Her hand rested on something hard and plastic: her toy lightsaber.

_A lot of good that will do me! _She thought to herself as she tried to find another way out of the situation. She didn't need to.

There was the faint smell of burning ozone, a groan of surprise, a thud of someone hitting the ground, then silence. Katie tightened her grip on her only item of protection trying to figure out what to do next. To go out into the foyer would be dangerous but to stay here was stupid.

Her curiosity got the better of her and Katie got up to see what was happening. Stepping as quietly as she could she made her way into the hallway and turned into the foyer when her foot kicked something hard and metal toward the door. She was taken by fear for a moment when she realized that was a gun. She tightened the grip on her toy saber when the sliding weapon was stopped by another dark object silhouetted by the semi darkness beyond the open door.

She let out a sharp intake of breath when she saw it was a man. Thoughts came into her head as to what to do. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to yell for her mother, only now aware of her stupid mistake of not calling first.

The yell never left her throat.

What felt like a vice grip closed around her neck, cutting off both her air and her scream. Katie clawed in vain at the invisible hands tightening around her airway.

"Can't have you yelling out now can I," the voice was cold, quiet, and angry like death itself was speaking to her. "I could have just had this human," he-- it was definitely a he-- pointed with his non-raised hand at a body on the floor, "kill you but I wanted to have the honor of the act. A pity though, that you were not more of a challenge. I expected more."

The grip around her neck grew even tighter. She fell upon the cool tile floor and spots danced before Katie's eyes. This was it; she would die here and never see her life through, never finish high school, never take anymore tests, and never say good bye to her mother. She lost her vision and was preparing for death's embrace when suddenly the grip on her neck was released and wonderful, cool, loving, air flew back into her oxygen-deprived lungs.

"He's dead, without a doubt. Good shot."

"Thanks, you just never know with these guys."

She looked up to notice that there were now two different forms in the door way, from the voices Katie could tell one was a man, the other a woman, but they sounded a lot alike. One of them came over and helped her up. It was the woman. With her brown hair and eyes she looked no older than twenty. Katie could have sworn she had seen her before.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I'm alright, thanks for helping me," Katie was surprised at the confusion in her voice.

"Just sorry we couldn't get here faster," the man had come up to her side now and was helping keep Katie on her feet.

"Who are you?" Katie was now seriously confused.

"I'm Jaina, and that's my brother Jacen."

Katie could not describe that shock that filled her then. She could only think of one thing to say as her mind and body went numb. "Solo?"

"How'd you know?"

Katie shook her head, "How did you get here?"

Jacen laughed, "That is one interesting and long story."

Katie blurted out another thought, "Do you have a way of getting around undetected?"

"Yeah, we have a cloaked hover car, why?"

"I am not listening to anything without my best friend."

-----

Mary awoke to the high-pitched beeping of her cell phone ring. Reaching over to her desk to grab the horrid technology, she realized too late that her phone was not on the desk. Overreaching her arm, she lost her balance and fell in an uncomfortable heap on her flute case

"Ouch…" Mary mumbled into the carpet. Much to her annoyance, her phone had continued ringing the whole time. She found the illuminated rectangle lying next to her flute case and quickly checked the caller ID.

Mary rolled her eyes, _Only Katie would call at this time… _she thought as she quickly pushed the pick up key. "Urg…" was all she could manage to say in her current state of mind.

"Mary? You awake?" came Katie's voice out of the speaker.

"Awake enough to cause you severe bodily harm, if that's what you mean!" came Mary's snippy retort.

"You'll forgive me for this, I promise! You've gotta come outside now!"

_This had better be good… _Mary thought silently. "Fine, I'll be on the balcony. But if you're tp-ing me again…"

"Just come outside already!"

Mary yawned but pulled on a sweatshirt and slipped into some flip flops before pulling open the sliding glass door to her seldom-used balcony. "Ok, I'm out, but I don't see anything," she said, wiggling her toes to keep them warm in the night air.

Mary heard a muffled, "Ok… now!" on Katie's side of the line. Instantly, a high-tech vehicle of some kind materialized on her front lawn. Confused and excited beyond all reason, Mary ran across her garage roof and slid down the basketball pole, sprinting to the thing she slowly realized was a _hovercraft_ of all things.

"OH MY GOD KATIE!" Mary yelled into the phone, "WHAT DID YOU DO!"

"Get in, they'll explain everything," Katie said calmly as a platform lowered to ground level. Mary instantly clambered inside.

-----

Katie looked to her best friend in mild amusement as her excited hazel eyes took in the brightly-colored surroundings. Mary slowly hung up her cell phone as she took a seat next to Katie. Surprisingly, the first thing she said was, "Dude, there's a giant hovercraft on my front lawn…"

"Not anymore. We have a cloaking device, remember?" said Jacen from the cockpit.

"Katie…" Mary began, "Who's the guy and his twin sister?"

Katie smiled inwardly. Even this early her friend was able to notice that Jaina and Jacen were, in fact, twins and not just two random people thrown together. "They are the twins Jaina and Jacen."

"Wait, you mean like Solo?" Mary asked confusedly, "But that makes no sense! They aren't real! I mean… they're only in books… which makes no sense because they're sitting right there…" she trailed off into confused mutterings.

_That's exactly what I thought._ Katie tried to comfort her friend, "They haven't explained how or why they're here yet, I waited to get you first."

Mary smiled, "Hey, that was cool. Thanks."

"Don't mention it, and if you two would be so kind as to explain, that'd be great!" Katie looked to the brown-haired twins expectantly.

The twins looked to each other worriedly, "No chance of you two coming with us then without an explanation?"

"NOPE!" Mary squealed happily.

Jacen sighed, "Alright, I'll start. Since you both already know the basic history of our world, I'll skip to when the trouble began. After Luke Skywalker – "

Katie let out an excited squeal, causing Mary to raise an eyebrow in wonder. "Sorry," Katie mumbled as she looked to Jacen to continue.

The twin then continued his story, "After Luke Skywalker helped bring down the Galactic Empire, there was a relative peace throughout our galaxy, but, like most good things, it didn't last. The Senate began to argue worse than ever before, and in the midst of all the turmoil…"

"Master Skywalker disappeared." Jaina cut in.

Katie and Mary gasped in unison. "But without Luke, who will run the Jedi Academy?" Katie managed to blurt out.

Jacen grimaced at the informal title, but sighed and continued, "The Jedi Academy was the least of our worries. Right after _Master_ Skywalker vanished, a new Sith Lord revealed himself and managed to create an army against the Republic."

"How could there be a Sith Lord? I thought with Palapatine dead they were exterminated," Mary asked.

"That's what we thought," Jacen continued, "But whether this was a false Sith Lord or the real thing, the threat was the same. A powerful enemy had emerged to challenge the Republic."

Jaina continued with more of the story, "As soon as this new army revealed itself, several key members of the Senate began turning against the Jedi for unknown reasons, most claiming that this Sith Lord was a classic example of Jedi arrogance against the Republic. Today, Jedi are simply not allowed on many systems."

"That's terrible," Katie managed to breath out.

"That's not even the worst of it," Jacen took a quick look at his sister before continuing, "Luke Skywalker then appeared on the enemy's side; on the side of the Sith."

"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" the two girls cried in unison.

"I thought so, too, but that was before I had to fight him." Jaina ran a hand through her brown hair quickly before continuing, "It happened many years after the start of the actual war. Jacen and I were leading a Republic offensive against the Sith army, and during a break in the fighting I was faced with Luke himself."

Katie and Mary stared, too shocked to say anything.

"I was able to study him for any signs of mind control, which I wasn't able to detect, but I noticed his eyes contained only sadness, not darkness. He had not fully turned. Before attacking me, he was able to say one thing, 'Bring the one that has been sent across space time to save us, only they can restore peace. I'm sorry, Jaina.' That's when he attacked."

Jaina paused, and Jacen took up where his sister left off, "That battle actually turned into a Republic victory, but Master Skywalker retreated with the enemy. It was not until later that Jaina and I found something that he had left behind: schematics for a machine that allows someone to travel across space time, to the past or the future. The Sith have this machine in their possession. Some Republic technicians were able to make a prototype and sent Jaina and myself to find you." On the last word, he looked to Katie.

"But how did you find us?" Katie asked.

Jaina laughed, "Finding a strong force user in this galaxy was easier than hitting a Bantha with a sand cruiser. The force is extremely weak on this planet, and the inhabitants lack the spark to use it. Someone with your potential was easy to find, Katie, and you led us to Mary here."

"Katie can use the force!" Mary yelled.

Jacen smiled, "She can, and, by the looks of it, you can, too."

Katie stared, "We… can be… JEDI!"

"Absolutely."

Katie continued to stare while Mary began to squeal excitedly.

"You two had better rest. We'll meet you here at noon when you decide," said Jaina.

"Decide what?" Katie asked.

"Whether or not you're coming with us, of course!" Jacen said.

"Let's go now!" Mary yelled.

"We can't go now," Katie started, "They're giving us half a day to think it over. We should probably tie up some loose ends… and pack," she groaned, "not to mention finals…"

"SCREW FINALS!" Mary screeched, "I can stand to wait 'til noon, whatever, but we are not not going, Katie! This is what you and I have always dreamed of! Look, I'm gonna get off this cool hovercraft thingy, and I will see you back on my front lawn at noon, and you had better be getting back on it with me, or I am going major lightsaber on your ass." With that, Mary said goodbye to Jaina and Jacen, walked down the platform, and climbed back to the balcony to her bedroom.

"She's got quite the high spirit, huh?" Jaina asked.

Katie sighed, "You have no idea…"

-----

Later that morning…

"_COUGH! HACK!_"

"Katie? Are you ready for school?"

"I don't think so mom… I feel way sick," Katie was cut off by another round of coughing and sniffles.

Katie's mom opened her daughter's door a crack, "Are you sure? It is a finals day, and I know how you hate to miss those."

Katie blew her nose pitifully, "Well, if you think I can go- _ACHOOO!_"

"No no, honey, you stay home," Katie's mom leaned over and fluffed her only child's pillow, "If you need anything, you know my work number. There are cans of soup in the kitchen, and I'll bring home some antibiotics after work. Buh-bye!"

With that, Katie's mom whisked out the door, and Katie began planning what to pack.

Across town…

"Oh Mary, you're so flushed!" Mary's mom stood over her youngest daughter, feeling her forehead worriedly.

"Ugh," Mary whined, "But I have finals today…"

"We'll just see about that! I'll just bring your finals home and you can take them later," Mary's mom checked the clock, "I have to go! Eat lots of fruit and veggies!"

Mary waited until the garage door closed and her mom's Honda had pulled out of sight.

_Excellent, _Mary thought as she pulled her duffel bag from her closet. "Last time I do fifty sit-ups in the morning…" she grumbled to herself.

Back at Katie's…

"Where is it!" Katie yelled, throwing meaningless sheaves of paper over her shoulder, "I'm not going anywhere without my Gamecube!"

Suddenly, her phone began to vibrate annoyingly, "WHAT!"

"Damn, Katie, chill! I think you Gamecube's under the bed in the guestroom."

"Oh, thanks Mary," Katie said as she retrieved the missing system.

"No biggie, I can't decide which books to bring! Do you think Angels and Demons and the Da Vinci Code is enough? Or should I bring the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter? "

Katie thought for a moment, "Lord of the Rings, yes, Harry Potter, no. Remember to bring paperbacks, they're easier to carry. By the way, do you have a history book?"

Mary laughed over the phone, "Are you kidding me? I burned mine after my final. I don't think you'll have to take the test in Star Wars land."

"Ugh, I'm not worried about the test anymore, I was just thinking that we're the only people from Earth these people have ever met, and we should be good little ambassadors."

"Yeah, whatever Kate, I got a world history book, you bring the U.S. history, OH! and bring the Star Wars DVDs. I sense a huge opportunity to mess with people here." Mary began cackling maliciously.

Katie rolled her eyes, "I'll bring them, but not for your sick mind games."

Mary sighed loudly, "Fine! Look, I have to go pack some clothes and movies, plus, I'm starving! I'll call you back when I'm coming to pick you up."

"K, seeya!" Katie then hung up the receiver.

A few hours later…

Mary sped down the freeway in her bright red Chevy Cavalier, after managing to fit all of her stuff in the trunk. Blasting Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, Mary was finally beginning to be excited about the potential adventure facing herself and her best friend.

Taking the correct exit, Mary began to really think about what was happening. _Are we just leaving our old lives behind forever? Is that right? … Is that fair?_

Startled out of her thoughts by an angry horn from a black Mustang, Mary shot the man a glare and continued down the road to Katie's house.

When she pulled up, Katie ran out to meet her, carrying a few bags and… a guitar?

"Since when do you play?" Mary asked.

"I dabbled here and there," Katie replied.

"Uh huh, just get in, we should hurry."

"What's the rush? We have half an hour," Katie whined.

"Bad feelings," Mary mumbled.

Katie quirked an eyebrow but said nothing, knowing her friend to go off into tangents like this randomly.

As Mary pulled out of Katie's neighborhood, she sped down to the freeway on-ramp quickly. Glancing out the rearview mirror, she saw the black Mustang from before dart into Katie's neighborhood.

"Oh… snap," Mary stated under her breath.

"What's up?" Katie asked.

"I was followed to your house, but for some reason they didn't show while I was there…"

"Who do you think it was?" Katie asked, "You don't think it involves…"

"What else, Katie, what else?"

Pulling up to Mary's house, Katie quickly tumbled from the car. Grabbing the keys from her friend to open the trunk, she began piling up the bags in the driveway. Pulling out a tiny case, she smiled at her friend, "Bringing the flute, I see?"

"Naturally. You're the one that said we should be good little ambassadors."

"At least they didn't follow us here," Katie said, sensing her friend's apprehension.

Mary smiled, "Yeah, I guess."

"About time you guys got here."

Jumping about fifteen feet in the air each, the girls turned to see Jaina and Jacen standing on the grass.

"How do you guys do that?" Katie asked.

The twins just smiled mysteriously.

"They're weird," Mary whispered to Katie.

"Yeah, but so are we," she replied.

Mary thought for a moment, "Point taken."

"Are you two ready to go?" Jaina asked patiently.

Katie and Mary glanced at each other, and Katie nodded. Together, they began dragging the bags over to where the twins were standing.

"Don't worry about things here, we have set up a ruse to explain your disappearance," Jacen said professionally, "We set it up to seem like you were both kidnapped."

"I don't get to be massacred or anything? That's depressing," Mary whined.

Jaina looked to the girls seriously, "I hope you both realize that we may not be able to return to this time and world."

Katie swallowed hard but nodded again, noticing Mary doing the same.

"Alright then, Jacen, if you please," Jaina gestured to her brother, who set two small pyramidal mechanisms about two yards apart on Mary's lawn. Pressing a remote control button, a swirling blue vortex about six feet high materialized.

Jacen threw the bags through the rip in space time, looking to the girls expectantly.

Still clutching her flute, Mary looked to Katie, "You ready?"

Katie bit her lip and nodded yet again, but did not walk any closer to the vortex.

Mary sighed, "Less thinking, more action!" After that, she pushed Katie into the vortex, who then grabbed Mary's wrist and pulled her in after awkwardly. The twins smiled after their new companions and walked smoothly through the vortex.

-----

Just as the twins had finished walking through the vortex a black mustang pulled into Mary's driveway. The man that walked out of it was a sight to be seen in the ninety-something southern California heat. He was wearing black boots, trench coat, hat, and sunglasses. The only part of his skin that could be seen was pale and ghastly; clearly in need of a good Newport Beach tan. He started to walk toward the pyramidal mechanisms and the vortex. The man did not take more then five steps before the small machines self-destructed, destroying the vortex with them.

He pulled out a small circular object and spoke into it, "Sir, they went with the Jedi. Everything is going according to plan. Step one is a success."

-----

Katie felt like she was on the craziest roller coaster of her life. Right when she thought she would lose her lunch all over the place, it ended abruptly. Tumbling head first onto a tiled floor, she tried to sit up groggily. Her condition was not helped by Mary falling onto her back soon after.

Katie looked up in wonder and gasped, "Look, Mary!"

Mary looked up slowly, gasped excitedly, then passed out cold.

"Mary? Are you…? Uh oh," Katie felt a tightening sensation around all of her sense, then she, too, blacked out.


	2. Coruscant Can't Handle This!

**Chapter II: Coruscant Can't Handle This!**

Mary awoke with a jaw-shattering yawn, pulling her arms over her head in a stretch, she thought, _It was all a dream, it didn't happen_. That was only for the split second before she was fully awake. The feeling that came over her was as if she had been sleeping her entire life and waking up for the first time ever. She could sense things now, a strange feeling for her to describe. Mary felt energized and ready for anything.

"Took ya long enough, sleepy head."

Mary sat up on her bed and looked over, seeing Katie standing on a balcony. There were speeding hover cars in the background. "So it…"

"No, it was not a dream"

Mary looked at all the high-tech furniture and the cars outside. "You're the one that knows everything about Star Wars. Where are we?"

"Not sure. Could be Han and Leia's apartment, or maybe Luke's."

There was a realization coming over Mary, "Katie, do you think that whoever's apartment we're in might have a hovercraft? A fast one?"

Katie shrugged, trying to change the subject quickly, "Hey Mary, notice anything different about yourself?"

"You mean something _besides _the spiffy Force sense? Then, no."

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Two, why do you car— wait a minute. I can see with out my contacts! This is so cool!" Mary then got up and joined Katie on the balcony.

All of the cars, skyscrapers, not to mention Force senses, were quite overwhelming right then.

Katie smiled to her friend, "You can't believe we're really here, right?"

"Just now taking it in."

Their pensive state was shaken by another presence in the room. They sensed him before they heard him, which was hard for either of them to get used to. Turning around they noticed not one but two forms coming through a door that led to another part of the apartment.

One, not human, was brown, hairy, ape-like, and taller then the human beside him. The two girls were struck speechless as the realized within seconds that this was Chewbacca. The man beside him, in captain's clothing, was none other than Han Solo himself.

"Oh my God! Katie that's…" Mary whispered into Katie's ear as best she could.

"I know!" the other teenager replied.

"I'm glad to see you two are up. You kids had us worried." Han gave both of the girls the once over.

Chewbacca growled something incomprehensible to Mary or Katie when a woman's voice came from the other room.

"They are, I thought so," a woman in a white senatorial gown came into the room. It was Leia. "I thought you two were awake, but my senses are rather weak. Are you feeling alright?"

Katie swallowed her amazement and spoke up while Mary just stood staring, "Yes, we're fine…well, if you can call feeling as if you've just stepped into a really cold shower fine."

Han turned to his wife, "They must feel the same way you and Luke do when out from under the ysalamiri."

"Katie," Mary looked at her friend in confusion, "what's a ysa-whatchamacallit?"

"I'll explain later."

"ahh…" Mary looked downtrodden

"I can imagine," Leia looked to the two girls and then shock filled her face, as if she had forgotten something, "Please forgive me for my manners. I'm Leia Organa Solo," she then pointed to Han and Chewbacca, "that is my husband, Han Solo, and that is Chewbacca the wookie." Chewbacca yowled out something and Leia laughed, "He says you can call him Chewie. Who are you? What do you call yourselves?"

Mary looked to Katie and held up her hands in defeat, "You do the introductions! I don't know anything about this sort of thing. Just, please don't mess up."

Katie nodded, "I'm Katie, and this is Mary. We're from the planet Earth, the third planet from the star in the Solar System, located in the Milky Way Galaxy. Our galaxy is," Katie just could not resist the temptation, "far, far away from this one."

Mary snickered at the last comment and Katie whispered, "Just couldn't resist."

Leia did a short bow, "Well Katie and Mary, it was a pleasure to met you. I have to go to the Senate, but I will come back later. I hope to tell the Senate that you are awake. They will want to talk to you but I doubt it will be today, likely tomorrow or the next. The Senate just has to get a few things settled."

It was Han's turn to snicker, "Yeah," he whispered to the two girls, "that will be in about three years."

"I heard that"

"Sorry Leia, I forgot about the heightened Jedi senses." Han looked away from his wife.

"You don't need to say sorry Han, with the way things have been going you may be right. I will see what I can get worked out."

Leia turned to Mary and Katie, "Our home is yours, as our guests." She looked at Han and smiled, "And as our guests, Han, they are your responsibility."

"WHAT!"

"I think that they should see the city and that you should take them."

Chewie grumbled a comment. "Guess you're right Chewie, they can't be that hard to take care of."

"I'll be back later, hopefully the meetings won't run late today." With that Leia kissed her husband on the cheek then turned and exited the apartment.

"So," Han said turning toward where the girls should have been and seeing that they were not there, "Where did you two kids get off to?"

He made his way to the living room noticing that the one called Mary was lounging on the couch, apparently fiddling with a data pad. The other one, Katie, looked to be messing with the holoprojector.

"What are you two-" he wasn't even able to get his sentence out before Katie yelled to her friend.

"MARY! I got Soul Caliber 2 to play on the holoprojector!"

"Dude, serious! I get first dibs!"

"No way! Versus mode."

Han sighed, taking a now vacant seat on a couch, _This is gonna be a long day…_

-----

"I would _kill _for a Starbucks right about now," Mary whined, running a hand through her shoulder-length light brown hair as she wandered with Katie through one of the many skyscraper/shopping centers that littered Coruscant's surface.

"Mary, there are no Starbucks here," Katie explained patiently to her caffeine-deprived friend.

Mary lapsed into incomprehensible whimpers that contained the words 'mocha' and 'chai tea'.

"What are you two jabbering about?" Han asked from behind the two girls, his patience wearing thin.

"Long story, Han," Katie explained.

Han scratched the back of his head, "So… what the hell do you two kids want to do?"

Mary suddenly recovered from her decaffeinated lamentations, turned to Katie, and whispered loudly, "Well, we could always head back to the apartment and play your Star Wars Dvds to freak out Captain Annoying and the giant chipmunk back there."

"Mary, no," Katie stated flatly.

"But it'd be fun! And I'm BORED!"

"Like I said, no. We're supposed to be getting clothes anyway."

"Clothes, eh? Sounds good to me!" Mary chirped as she ran to the nearest clothing store.

Chewie growled something to Han. "I'd agree with you, pal." He then turned to Katie, "Is she always like this?"

Katie smiled, her gray eyes sparkling, "Only at the mall."

"At the what?"

Katie rolled her eyes, "Never mind," and quickly chased after her friend.

Two hours later…

Han was about to pull out his blaster on his two charges. They had been in the same clothing store for what seemed like an eternity. He'd been shopping with Leia before, but this was torture.

Chewie growled again, and Han looked up to see the two girls coming towards him, empty-handed.

Before the former smuggler could strangle the two girls, Mary stepped in, "Ok, I know you think we suck at shopping, but we just realized… we have no money."

Katie nodded in agreement, "I only found her about an hour ago, and we spent the last hour making a pile of purchase-worthy items, only to realize we are, indeed, broke."

Han sighed patiently and handed Katie a data card, "This has access information for Leia's account. Have fun."

"SWEET!" Mary yelled before snatching the card and running back into the store.

Katie sighed, "Now you've done it."

"Done what?" Han asked.

"You've given Mary a credit card."

Mary walked out again about ten minutes later, smiling stupidly to herself, again bearing no clothes whatsoever.

"Did you get _anything?_" Han asked pitifully.

"Of course I did!" Mary said, "I just got so much they said they'd ship it directly to your apartment, free of charge! They said I was their best customer. Isn't that cool?"

Katie laid her face in her hands, "Oh God…"

"No worries, Katie! I got you some stuff, too, I hope I got your size right, it's a bit… off around here."

Han yawned and stretched, having missed his daily nap during their screeches of victory or yells of defeat in their hour-long video game tournament, "Can we _please _go now? I'm starving!"

Chewie growled in agreement.

"Food!" Mary said excitedly.

Katie was a bit more cautious, "What do you guys eat around here?"

"Well," Han smirked, "do you like things spicy?"

"HELL YES!" The girls cried in unison.

"In that case, we'll head back and I'll whip you up some nice Coreillian food," Han said as he led the way back to the parked hovercar.

As they sat in their seats, Mary quickly grabbed the front seat next to Han, "SHOTGUN!"

Han just shook his head, not about to ask, "Just let it go, Chewie."

Chewie grumbled incomprehensibly and sat in the back with Katie.

Mary looked to the controls excitedly, "Can I drive!"

"No," Han stated.

"Can I drive, Please?"

"Not on your life, sport."

"I'll vacuum the apartment! Twice!" Mary haggled.

"Vacuum?"

Mary rubbed her temples patiently, "I'll… clean… things. Just let me drive!"

"No."

Mary huffed and sat back in her seat, glaring daggers at Katie who had begun snickering in the back seat.

The drive was alright until they reached the home stretch.

"Come on! We're almost there and it's straight, CAN I PLEASE DRIVE!" Mary yelled.

"Fine!" Han conceded, throwing his hands up in defeat. "Just don't get us killed, Leia will kill me if you do."

"Yay!" Mary cried as she deftly switched seats with the captain.

"Alright," Han said slowly, "These are the basic controls. The yoke helps you steer, this switch starts it, and there's the throttle, and the breaks are-"

Mary slammed her fist on the accelerator, throwing everyone back in their seats, "This is SO cool!" she cried, ignoring the angry shouts following in their wake.

At this rate, it took them an even minute on a stretch that should've taken at least five.

Han was terrified. Just before they crashed into the docking bay, he reached over and yanked on the breaks. They came to a sudden halt, and gently floated into the parking space.

Mary was ecstatic, "Let's go again!"

"NO!" Han yelled, this time joined by Chewie's yells.

Katie leaned forward, "I think they've had enough."

"Hmm… ok!" Mary said as she leapt from the driver's seat, "food time!"

The next day…

"I'm glad Leia was able to get us in to see the Senate today," Katie said as she and Mary were waiting outside the building with Chewie for Han to come out and give them the okay to go inside. Their luggage was stacked in a messy pile on the bench next to them.

"So…" Mary asked, using her bored voice, "What do you wanna do?"

"I dunno, we have to wait for Han."

Mary shrugged, reaching to the luggage pile and grabbing her flute case. Quickly assembling the silver instrument, she began playing a light tune. Smirking to herself, she quickly switched to another song, one she hoped Katie would be able to recognize.

Katie looked up in disbelief, "Minority!"

"The one and only Green Day," Mary replied.

"Hold on!" Katie said as she grabbed her guitar case. Quickly pulling out the instrument and giving it a tune, she looked to her friend expectantly.

"You serious?" Mary asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure! Like I said, I've dabbled here and there, and it just so happens that Minority is one of my favorites."

"Alright then, you start the guitar riff then," Mary said.

Katie played a chord, tuned again, and then launched into the opening segment of one of Green Day's best songs. Mary quickly covered the vocal part with an improvised flute solo, joining with her friend in shouting the chorus line.

"I WANNA BE THE MINORITY, HEY!"

It was not long before the two teens had a large crowd gathered before them. Some of them looked appalled, but a good majority was actually pleased and began bobbing their heads… or tentacles… along with the catchy tune.

It was then that Captain Han Solo made his big entrance, grabbing the girls by their shirt collars before reprimanding them soundly, "The Senate will meet with you now."

Katie looked at Mary quickly and flashed a reassuring smile before they were sent to meet the Senate.

"Mary, just let me do all the talking, alright?" Katie said to her now-thrilled-beyond-all-belief friend.

"Why's that? I can talk to, ya know!" Mary said, slightly offended.

"I realize you can talk, Mary, believe me, we ALL do, I just wanna make a good impression with the Senators."

They had now reached the door, Han and Chewie close behind them.

As they entered the main Senate chamber, Mary looked around in awe. This chamber was definitely different than it had been portrayed in the Star Wars movies. She stole a quick questioning glance at Katie.

Katie leaned over and whispered, "They redid the place for the Empire, so it's totally different now."

Mary nodded as Katie took in the whole scene around her. The chamber was laid out like an amphitheatre, the many Senators filling the audience places. Where the stage would have been was a square platform, raised high above all the surrounding seats. Although the rows of seats near the back of the chamber were slightly higher than those in the front, it was the main platform that dominated the area. Katie recalled that it had been set up this way so that the emperor could preside higher than his subjects, mentally and physically.

Today, the higher platform was not in use. Instead, a small podium had been set up in front of the platform on the ground floor. This was where the Chief of State stood to address the Senate.

Katie was about to ask Han who the current Chief of State was, when Leia walked up to the Podium and silently waved the girls over. Realizing Han and Chewie had already taken their seats, Katie motioned to Mary to walk up to the forefront.

Leia seemed different then when they had seen her before; she was more commanding and impressive. She said in a voice that echoed above all the commotion in the senatorial seats, "I now call this session of the New Republic Senate to order. In this session, we will address the appearance of two visitors in accordance with the message we receive no less than three days ago." She turned to her aid beside her, "Winter, would you please recite the message for us?"

"Gladly, your highness. Quote, 'A great warrior from the future of a different time will be sent to help stave off the eminent conflict from within' unquote."

The Bothan Senator (the Bothans being a catlike humanoid race), stood up in dismay, "The letter itself was vague! It never said there would be two, let alone where they're from, or that they'd be _force users_ like you mentioned they were yesterday! Not to mention the fact that they are much to young to be of any real importance!"

Leia raised her voice above his, "Councilor Fey'la, you're speaking out of order. We will hear what these girls have to say, then we will listen to any comments." She turned expectantly to the two teens, "Do you wish to tell us your story? Do you know why you're here?"

Mary stepped forward, about to speak, but Katie quickly spoke up before she could open her mouth, "Chief of State Organa Solo, it would be easier for us to explain our present situation if we knew the state in which the New Republic is in. Could you tell us what is going on?"

"Such a request, where to start? It seems only right that you should know. There has been growing unrest in many systems, and some have even separated from the Republic. We Loyalists are trying to keep it together with help from the Jedi Knights-"

"Loyalists!" Katie yelled in a tone rather high for a Senate session, "Excuse me for my interruption, but what do you call those who have separated from the New Republic?"

"Separatists, as we all thought fit," Leia stated calmly.

Mary quickly stepped in, "Excuse me, Chief of State Organa Solo. I would like a minute to confer with my partner before continuing this discussion."

Leia nodded her consent as Mary pulled Katie off to one side.

"Katie! This is BAD!" Mary said quickly.

Katie bit her lip nervously, "Yeah, I know."

"This is VERY bad!" Mary stated again, "Do they even remember what happened before?"

"They must not, or they wouldn't have it set up like this. I think we need more info before we start worrying about it," Katie said, dragging Mary back to the podium.

"You may continue," Katie said to Leia.

Leia gave the girls a confused look, but then continued explaining the situation to them, "As to our knowledge they have not assembled any forces against us, nor do they appear to have hostile intentions. They have kept trade routes open and conversed with us on a government to government basis."

It was at that moment that a robed and hooded figure entered the senatorial chamber saying "I've failed." in a voice that sounded to Mary like a fish, if fish could talk. The figure removed their hood, and the two teens realized that this alien was of the same race as Admiral Ackbar.

"Ah, Cilghal. I'm glad to see you have returned, how are things going on Yavin Four?" Leia asked.

"Not very well," replied the figure, "No Jedi can be spared for the search you have requested. I myself have been assigned to other duties as have the others. I'm sorry Minister Organa Solo, but there are too few of us."

Mary leaned over to Katie, "Katie, who's that?"

"She's one of the first Jedi Luke ever trained at his academy," Katie replied.

"Oooh, that makes sense," the other girl stated.

"I understand, Cilghal," Leia resumed, "You are dismissed."

The Jedi bowed and made her way out of the chamber, drawing up her hood once more.

"What was that about!" Mary blurted out before anyone could stop her.

Leia made a deep sigh of both sorrow and regret, "I guess it's only right to tell you. Perhaps that's why you are here in the first place. Master Skywalker, my brother, has gone missing. He's been gone for more than two months, with no contact made to the academy or me. With some recent Imperial attacks, we can't spare any troops or convoys to search for him. I'm at a loss."

Mary looked over to Katie, and was mildly alarmed to notice a sparkle in her eyes that her friend got every time she read a new Star Wars book.

Katie stepped up before her friend could stop her, "Mary and I don't know this galaxy very well, and the saying goes on our world that 'travel is the best education.' Perhaps Mary and I could go by the Jedi Academy, learn to harness our powers, and search for any rumors of Luke. That way you won't have to compromise any of your defenses."

"And we'll get some fun out of it!" Mary finished.

There was discussion between the Senators as they took in the young girl's proposal. Leia called them to order and asked their opinion. Amazingly enough, most said that two Jedi in training would be the perfect choice, even if they didn't know the galaxy very well.

Mary and Katie were so amazed by this, that they caught themselves doing a series of inappropriate high fives and whoops where everyone could see them. Leia turned to the two girls, "You realize this would be difficult, and it will be with a heavy heart that I send you."

Mary shot Leia a confident look, "Leia, if we can handle getting here, we can handle anything."

Leia smiled, "In that case," she turned to the Senate, "All in approval?"

The Senators raised their hands up high, and, astoundingly enough, it was a majority.

"It's settled then. The two girls will leave as soon as possible to Yavin Four. They will then commence the search for Master Skywalker." Leia turned to the two girls, "You are dismissed." She then whispered in a voice no one could hear, "I don't know how it happened, but you two try to take care of yourselves. I will have Wedge Antilles of Rogue Squadron assign you fighter ships."

Mary tapped Katie on the shoulder, "Fighter ships!"

Leia continued, "I will have Han and Chewie take you there immediately."

At this point, the two girls got up and left, Han and the Wookie behind them.

-----

They sat in the Imperial Palace gardens, waiting for Wedge to meet up with them.

Mary was first to break the silence, "This doesn't make any sense."

"What do you mean?" Katie asked.

"Ok, well, I'm over the whole we're in the Star Wars galaxy thing, but all this time stream nonsense isn't adding up. Jaina and Jacen told us that Luke had already disappeared and turned to the Dark Side. However, Leia said they just now realized that Luke was gone, and I haven't even seen Jaina or Jacen since we got here," Mary finished with a silent huff.

Katie thought for a moment, "Well, I think the Jaina and Jacen we met came from a very turbulent time. Maybe the tide of the war was going badly. I think they were sent to our time to get us. They then sent _us _to _their _past, hoping we could stop Luke from turning to the Dark Side at all. Jaina and Jacen are probably small children at this time."

"Um… I think I almost might kinda understand," Mary stated, "So, we came from our time to fix _this_ time so Jaina and Jacen's time will be all better and stop the creation of the Sith's time warp thingy?"

"I think that's pretty much it, only without the Sith's time machine we wouldn't be here in the first place."

Mary rolled her eyes, "Whatever, I'm just gonna start focusing of the here and now, and if any stuck-up Jedi master tries to tell me otherwise, I'll gouge his nostrils with a spork!"

As soon and they were done squabbling, someone they recognized from the Star Wars movies walked up, giving a quick greeting to Han and Chewie and shaking hands with the two girls, "I'm captain Antilles of Rogue Squadron, but you can just call me Wedge. Let me show you to the flight simulation room." He then led then two girls to another part of the Imperial Palace.

Three hours later…

"OH MY GOD THAT WAS SOOOO COOL!" Mary yelled after stepping out of the flight simulator.

"I KNOW!" Katie agreed enthusiastically.

Wedge walked up to a nearby machine that resembled a modern-day printer, "This machine will give you your readouts on what fighter ship you should be issued."

The girls paid him no mind, still rambling about how cool the flight simulator was.

"It was just like a virtual reality game!" Katie yelled.

"I went FAST!" Mary screeched.

"Apparently you did," Wedge butt in, "Your readouts came first, Mary. You did hit the accelerator quite a bit, yet you were able to maintain stable maneuverability. You were able to get close enough to your target to fire relatively weak shots that were still effective. So, I think you should get an A-Wing."

"Katie? What's an A-Wing?" Mary asked her all-knowing friend.

"It the fastest of the New Republic fighter ships," Katie replied, a sense of dread growing in her mind.

Mary was speechless, then, "SWEET!" was heard throughout the facility.

Wedge winced painfully but returned to the machine and retrieved Katie's readout, "Katie, it appears that you were very good at dodging shots, as well as making accurate shots at both enemy fighters and target objectives that were far-off. I believe you should be in an X-Wing."

Katie gasped loudly, "OH MY GOD! Mary! I get an X-Wing!"

Wedge winced again, but not so severely this time, "Actually, you two did rather well for having never piloted at all before… Never mind. Mary, there's an extra A-Wing in the hangar bay; we'll have it fixed up for you. As for you Katie, I'm sorry, but all the X-Wings are in use. However, I believe Luke did not take his when he left, and I believe it and Artoo are still on Yavin Four. You should be able to pick it up when you go. I will give you both a new cruiser, small enough to be piloted by two people but big enough to hold both of your ships. Report down to the hangar bay in about an hour." Wedge signaled that the two girls could leave.

-----

"So," Han began, piloting the two girls around Coruscant, "You two have an hour to kill. What do you wanna do?"

Katie looked over the horizon and sighed softly, "Han, there's somewhere Mary and I need to go."

Mary nodded in agreement, totally knowing what her friend was getting at, "Do you know where the remains of the old Jedi Temple are?"

Han thought for a moment, "No, actually, I didn't even know there was a Jedi Temple on Coruscant."

Katie leaned forward from her backseat, "That's ok, I can navigate."

Twenty minutes later…

A lone hovercar pulled up to the remains of what appeared to be a giant statue of the former Emperor.

"Ugh," Mary said disgustedly, "They never get things cleaned up round here, do they?"

"They must've built that when the Temple fell," Katie said softly.

The girls jumped out of the vehicle, Mary looking back to Han and Chewie, "Stay with the car."

Han agreed reluctantly, just wanting the girls off this planet and out of his hair.

Katie and Mary walked up to the base of the monument, looking for some sign of the ancient temple.

"I don't see anything," Mary stated.

Katie looked around patiently, "Use the Force, Mary."

Mary sighed and began poking around random bits of debris.

"Hey," Katie exclaimed, "I found something!"

Mary ran over to her friend, who was looking over a hole in the ground that apparently led to some vast chamber.

"It must've been revealed when they knocked over the statue," Katie explained.

Mary looked at the hole for a moment, "Um… okay," she said as she quickly leapt into the underground chamber.

"Mary!" Katie yelled as she jumped in after her good friend.

Chewie growled to Han concernedly, still by the hovercar.

Han shook his head, "Whatever, they'll be fine."

-----

"Hey, I can't see anything!" Katie whined as she stumbled around in the darkness.

"I got it," Mary said somewhere in the distance, pulling a discreet switch she landed on when she fell.

The girls gaped in awe as the room lit up before them. The cavern was massive. Long, fluted pillars stretched upward, taking the weight of the ground floor above them. A large area in the center was generally smooth, except for the occasional chunk of debris that had fallen from the ceiling.

"Do you know what this is, Mary?" Katie asked.

"No, but you're gonna tell me, aren't ya?" Mary stated flatly.

"This is where the Jedi trials took place… at least I think so."

"That's a first. You're actually not sure of something. I need to write this down somewhere…"

"Hey!" Katie said, slightly offended, "Just… look around or something."

"Fine, I will!" Mary huffed, walking to the opposite end of the chamber.

-----

Mary stood on the far side of the chamber, pouting after her mild skirmish with Katie. Hoping to look like she was actually doing something, she began turning over random bits of rubble that littered the floor. After pushing a particularly bulky piece of plaster, a slight glint caught her eye, "Hello, hello, what have we here?" she said, bending to pick it up. In her hand she held a small rock, no, a _crystal, _only this crystal was like none she had ever seen. As she held it up to the light, the beams reflected off its dark, cloudy interior.

"Mary!" Katie yelled, "Did you find something?"

Mary quickly slipped the small crystal in the pocket of her jeans, "Nope, nothing, just tying my shoe."

Katie nodded and continued poking around on her side of the chamber.

_Hm… that was weird. Does she know?_ Mary thought to herself. _She can't use the Force that well yet, can she? Is she hiding it from me?_ The teen shook her head suddenly, "What am I thinking?" she said softly, "This is stupid of me… We should just go now, our hour's almost up!" she said, shouting the last part at her friend across the chamber.

"Ok, let's go," Katie said, walking over to the hole in the ceiling.

Mary kept the crystal in her pocket secret as she walked to her friend, "How do you propose we get out? Jump?"

Katie smirked, "Exactly."

Ignoring the skeptical look on her friend's face, Katie gathered her strength in her legs, crouched slightly, and sprung up, catching the opening and quickly pulling herself up on solid ground, "Come on!" she said, waving to her friend, "It's easy! Just put all your strength in your legs, and let the Force propel you upwards."

Mary looked up at Katie, _So, she was hiding something from me…_ "How did you know how to do that?" she yelled to her friend.

Katie shrugged, "Lucky guess? I _have_ read almost all the books."

The other teen walked over to the hole, trying the same maneuver. Leaping into the air, Mary barely grasped the edge of the hole with her right hand. Katie was instantly at her side, holding out her hand, "Here, let me help you!" Mary shot Katie a quick glare, erasing it instantly as she used the offered hand to get to safety.

Katie looked after her friend, who had quickly walked back to the hovercar, _What was that all about? _she thought, _She can't still be mad at me for snapping at her._

She walked towards the car, Han and Chewie waiting for them.

"So, you find anything?" Han asked casually.

"No," both girls responded in unison.

Han quirked an eyebrow at the girls' rather depressed demeanor, but quickly shrugged it off, "Ok, into the car. I'll take you to the hangar bay."

-----

"Diagnostics are done, Mary, we can leave the hangar now." Katie made her way from the ship to the cockpit. There, Mary was sitting down in the pilot's chair making sure everything was fine up top.

"Well, get up here then!" Mary was over her strange mood from the Jedi Temple ruins and was back to her old self. "How am I supposed to fly this thing without my copilot?"

"Right on!" Katie jumped into the chair beside Mary and strapped in as they sped out of the chamber.

"This is shuttle_ Skylark_ requesting permission to jump to the proposed coordinates." Katie spoke into the comlink.

"Coruscant Space Control," buzzed a robotic voice inside the control panel, "You're cleared _Skylark._"

"Off we go then." Katie replied.

"Yeah, and while we're in hyperspace," Mary smiled to her friend, "You can tell me what the hell has happened since the movies."

"That'll take awhile."

"Good thing Yavin's such a far flight."


	3. It's Not All Good on Yavin 4

**Disclaimer! Again!**

Ok, I'm not gonna post disclaimers on all the chapters, but here's a 'lil one. We don't own Star Wars, but we do own ourselves. Or maybe Big Brother does, I dunno. Anyway, if anyone is reading this and intends to flame, here's a message for you:

I know we're not doing everything right! Believe me, I KNOW! And you telling me in some high n mighty rude manner isn't going to make me listen, and that's just sad for you. Maybe you should re-examine your own work before flaming stories other people have worked very hard to write, punkass.

By the way, that was just a warning, I haven't actually gotten flamed yet, but ya know, better safe than sorry. 

**Chapter III: It's Not All Good on Yavin 4**

Mary was waking up from a deep sleep when Katie's voice came over the intercom, "We're coming on Yavin, you'd better get down here!"

Mary ran through the ship to the cockpit, still groggy and rubbed her palm on her forehead, "Ugh, I just had the _strangest_ dream, can't remember it for crap though."

"I swear," Katie said laughing, "Your heavy sleeping's going to get us killed."

"Yeah, yeah. So," Mary was working the controls, preparing for the return to normal space, "Who out of all the people you talked about will be there?"

"Tionne definitely, but I'm not sure about anyone else, maybe Mara."

"You'll tell me when you see them, right?"

"Yeah, I'll try."

The control panel beeped, signaling the return to normal space. Mary leaned over and adjusted the controls slightly, "So, I know a little about Yavin. This is where we get our lightsabers, right?"

Katie nodded, "Yeah, it should be."

Mary smirked, "Perfect." _This is where the fun begins. _She gently began guiding the ship through the atmosphere of the nearby planet. "After we get past the atmosphere, I land in front of the Great Temple, right?"

"Sure, I thought I already told you."

"Of course, how _could _I forget!" Mary huffed softly.

"Sorry, jeez," Katie replied, putting less emphasis on the second word.

They soared low over a heavily-forested planet, with the occasional lake or mountain pass dotting the landscape. They quickly approached a distant structure, resembling a large Aztec temple. The Great Temple of the Massassi reared up before their eyes, the home of the new Jedi Academy. As they landed, they were surprised to notice a small crowd of people dressed in Jedi robes, waiting for them.

"You ready?" Katie looked to her friend.

"Always!" Mary quipped, "Let's go!"

Katie shot her friend a quick contemplative glance, _What is with the mood swings? She's been like this ever since the Temple…_

As they walked off the shuttle, a woman with silver hair and mother of pearl eyes walked up to meet them, also dressed in Jedi robes. Behind her, walked a young, black-haired man in the same attire, save for a black cape instead of robes. He looked to be about eighteen or nineteen and had the look of someone much older who is constantly ready to defend those around him to the death. All in all, the effect was mildly unsettling.

Katie stepped up to meet them, "Tionne, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." She did a little bow that Mary copied.

"Who's the guy next to her? His cape is _awesome!_" Mary semi-whispered to her friend.

"That's Kyp Durron, one of Luke's first candidates and the one I told you about."

**_(A/N: Jedi Academy Trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson. In that book, Kyp went to the Dark Side for a little and 'killed' Luke Skywalker, but it's all good now!)_**

"OH! That means he's the cool one who went to the Da–"

"Yes!" Katie rolled her eyes as she expertly cut off her friend. "That reminds me," she turned her gaze to the young man, "Why are you on Yavin Four? I thought you left a long time ago."

"I did." His voice sounded tired and saddened.

"What do you mean by that!" Mary questioned loudly.

Kyp sighed, "I've been gone a few years when I received an emergency message from Tionne. She told me to return to the Academy right away, that something horrible had happened, and, for security reasons, she wanted to tell me in person. When I finally got here, a few weeks after receiving the message, Tionne told me that Master Skywalker was missing. He had left about a month or two before and had not made any visits or communicated at all with the Academy."

"He never does this!" Tionne said, worry prominent in her voice, "Master Skywalker didn't even tell us where he was going, or how long he would be gone. We all woke up one day and could not find him. Artoo was still here, but when we went to the hangar, we found not his X-Wing missing, but a transport shuttle. I contacted all of his first candidates, but only Kyp could make it."

"By the way," Mary began, "We have names, and I thought you might wanna know them before you tell us more confidential Jedi-ish secrets."

"Oh, we know who you are already," Tionne smiled, "You're Mary, and you're Katie."

"How did you… ?" Mary began.

Katie cut her off, "You must've received Leia's transmission."

"Well, we got half of it at least, the transmitter cut out mid-transmission, and it's _still_ fried. We got your names and why you're here, but we didn't expect you so soon," Kyp stated.

Mary smiled enthusiastically, "But we're here now, and that means we get to join the Academy and get lightsabers, right?"

Kyp returned the smile slightly, "Yes, you will get lightsabers soon enough. We're going have to give you a crash course since you have to leave on your search quickly."

"YAY CRASH COURSES!" the girls yelled in unison and high-fived.

-----

Back on Coruscant, Leia walked up to the podium, "I call this session of the New Republic Senate to order. As you all know, Naboo recently became a member of the New Republic. We would like to welcome Senator Pelarmus. I believe you had something you wished to address to the Senate?"

"I do, Leia, thank you." He stood up, taller than most of the other Senators, bright blue eyes staring out at the crowd. He brushed his short, blonde hair out of his eyes before he started to speak.

"Fellow Senators, as you all know, attacks from the Imperials have been on the rise, our forces are stretched thin. There are too few Jedi to aid, and most of our main squadrons are out on missions. Therefore, I suggest, that we instate a larger scale army of the New Republic. To achieve this higher-level army, I believe that perhaps something, like a draft, should be issued to all systems." He looked apologetically at Leia on the podium, "We have been spared attacks on Naboo, and we are pained to see other systems suffer. I only say what our voters wish, to end this conflict as soon as possible."

He sat down to thunderous applause.

-----

"Ugh… crash courses…" Mary mumbled as she plopped onto her cot, having slept maybe twelve hours over the last three weeks.

"Well, why don't you try using that Jedi technique for fatigue they taught us?"

"Oh yeah, well, I forgot about that in my TIRED state!" Mary smiled while trying to adjust herself to find a more comfortable position; she couldn't find one.

"Ugh…" Katie put her hand to her head, "Did you feel that?"

Mary sat up, "Feel what, kid?"

"Never mind. And please refrain from calling me kid."

"Alrighty then…KID!"

"Oh God, no stopping you now."

"That's right," Mary smirked, "so you know what clothing you're going to pick out?" Mary was making a cloak fly over to her so she didn't have to get up.

"You're being lazy again."

"You would too, with only twelve hours of sleep in three weeks."

"Point taken." Katie grabbed some clothing and started to walk out, "I think I may have found something. You?"

Mary grabbed a small pile with her new found Force powers, "Yup."

"Right then, just a minute." Katie went into the bathroom of their small-shared quarters. She came out quickly sporting boots, tunic, pants and cloak; all in a resounding shade of black.

Mary laughed, "You look just like Luke from Episode six."

"Really," she caught Mary's eye, "I didn't do it on purpose, I swear!"

"Uh huh, suuuuuure," Mary said fixing her tunic.

"You look a lot like Obi-Wan." Katie stated, looking over her friend's cream-colored tunic.

"Eh, almost." Mary replied, snagging the gray cloak from before and tossing it around her shoulders casually, "My cloak's not brown. I don't like that color so much."

At that moment, Tionne popped her silvery head in their door, "You ready?"

The girls nodded, picking up their bags of scavenged electrical parts they had gathered the day before.

Tionne walked ahead briskly, "Making your own lightsaber is what determines whether or not you shall be counted among the Jedi Knights. You may return after a week or when your lightsabers are finished. When you return with your lightsabers, we will determine if they are adequate and if you shall be counted among the Jedi Knights."

They exited from the main temple entrance, "Here are your supplies," she handed them a bag of food and water each, "and we hope to be seeing you sooner that a week." She smiled softly, "Good luck." With that, she closed the Temple doors behind her.

"Well, that's a fine kettle of fish." Mary stated flatly.

Katie raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Never mind. Which way do we go?"

Katie scanned the area quickly, "This way… I think."

Mary shrugged and followed, discreetly making sure the crystal she had retrieved from the Jedi Temple had remained safely in place in her new utility belt.

The girls made their way through dense jungle undergrowth, with only a few minor problems, including one instance of something that might have been alive at one point grabbing Mary's ponytail.

Ripping her hair from the offending tree, Mary growled slightly, "This would be a lot easier with lightsabers… I still don't understand this whole crystal thingy."

"Well, it's not really that complicated. You did look at the schematics I gave you, right?"

"I did, but they made a total of no sense, even with the pictures."

Katie sighed, "Alright, let me put it in English for you. A lightsaber consists of four main components. The casing, which makes the hilt, and that can be made of just about anything. Luke's was a speeder handle. There's also the power cell, which allows you to have a lightsaber. You already have one of those. Then there's a power crystal. The power crystal converts the energy from the power cell into something that can be used to make the blade. Then there's the focusing crystal. That focuses the power into a single blade, and also determines the color of the blade. You can have more than one focusing crystal, and that can change width and length, but one is much simpler."

Mary blinked, "You've really read up on this, haven't you?"

"Yeah, just in case we ever ended up having to make one."

"That's one thing we never learned in Girl Scouts."

Katie smiled, "That's why I dropped it in first grade." She took a few steps forward, "Hey, I think we're here." Approaching a cave they had just spotted through some heavy leaves, Katie activated a glow rod and stepped inside. Mary quickly followed.

"It's beautiful!" Mary said, a hint of awe in her voice. Through the jagged opening the light reflected off many prismatic surfaces, the many-faceted faces off the crystals they had been searching for. While the crystals appeared clear and of no distinct color, the light that reflected off them radiated all the colors of the rainbow, and then some. "So," Mary said looking around in awe, "which ones are the power crystals?"

"Any of the larger ones. They are usually white; they look like or are quartz." Katie walked off to another part of the cave leaving Mary to fend for herself.

Mary walked around for awhile, examining different crystals and coming to a realization. _The crystal I found looks different from all of these. It should work the same though…right?_ Mary examined her crystal. It was dark and smoky but possibly the most beautiful crystal she had ever seen. _I don't care; I'm using this one. _ Mary grabbed a good-sized white power crystal and sat down to start assembling the parts of her soon to be weapon partner.

-----

Katie walked around, in awe herself of all the different colors, hues, and shades. In her hand she was already holding a good-sized power crystal, while looking for her focusing crystal. _They say the lightsaber determines the Jedi… well, at least their character. If I pick one that's liable to turn green, Mary will accuse me of copying Luke again… it's not my fault green's my favorite color! _

Katie continued to walk. Her searched appeared to be in vain, she hadn't found a single crystal that seemed to call out to her. When she turned the corner, she saw a small glint reflected from her glow rod on the dust in the ground. She leaned down and moved some of the dust away to find what appeared to be a white crystal, but it had to be a different hue. "Alright, you're mine. Best go find Mary now."

-----

Mary sat in the dust on the floor of the cave, trying to figure out how to best fit her power crystal into the handle she had made from the barrel of a small fighter cannon. As she finally slipped it into place, Katie came walking around the corner, carrying her bag of parts and two crystals. Finding Mary already well into the making of her lightsaber, Katie was a little surprised, "Sheesh, you found your crystal quick."

Mary shrugged as she capped off the end of the gun barrel with a random piece from the same ship, carefully welding it in place, "I guess." _I only found it a couple days ago._

Katie plopped on the ground to begin constructing her own weapon when Mary slipped her focusing crystal into the open end and capped it off in the same way, but not before attaching a power switch on the side.

Mary smiled and moved to flip the switch when Katie held out her hand, "Sorry, but it's tradition. We have to wait 'til we get back to the others."

Mary looked longingly at her completed saber before settling back on the floor. "Well, hurry up with yours then," she said, biting into some dry bread she pulled from her pack. "What did you pick for your handle anyway? Mine's a barrel from a cannon."

Katie began placing her crystal in her tube, "Well, mine's part of a control stick, probably from the same fighter you got yours from. I think there was only one whole fighter in that junkyard." She gently slipped the other crystal in the tube and quickly welded both ends shut. "Well, that was quick!"

Mary stood up eagerly, "Can we go back now!"

-----

Kyp Durron stood in a large room in the Temple, training a small group of young apprentices with flying remotes and lightsabers, similar to Luke's first Jedi training on board the _Millennium Falcon, _so many years ago.

"Reach out with your feelings. Try not to use your eyes, they can deceive you; don't trust them. That was always one of Master Skywalker's favorite sayings."

As he was about to reprimand a young boy for peaking under his blast shield helmet, Tionne ran into the room, "They've finished! Katie and Mary are walking to the Temple entrance!"

Kyp was shocked, "Already? That must be the quickest anyone's finished their sabers, and two of them together…" He turned to his students with a smile, "Class is over for today. Why don't you come with me to the entrance to greet our two newest graduates?"

-----

Katie and Mary stood, nervously standing in the front of the main audience chamber. "Jeez, we don't even know if these work yet!" Katie whispered.

"No kidding," Mary said, glancing at the welded tube she hoped would become a lightsaber.

Kyp and Tionne grimaced, "We are glad to see you have finished your final trial so quickly," Tionne began, "But we are also saddened. Master Skywalker would normally preside over this occasion."

Kyp continued, "We will pass you on; but do not be upset by the circumstances, we are not the least of the Jedi. Katie, why don't you go first?"

"Um… ok," Katie said, stepping forward to where the two elder Jedi were standing.

Tionne smiled, "Activate your lightsaber."

Katie nodded, tripping the switch quickly before she could change her mind. With a quick _snap-hiss_ a steady beam of colored light issued from the hilt, and the blade glowed a bright…

"I think it's green," said Katie, shrugging.

"It's blue!" Mary said from behind.

Kyp smiled, "That's a very pretty_ turquoise_ blade. I don't think I've ever seen one like that before. Well done, Jedi Knight. Mary, if you would please step forward and activate your lightsaber."

Mary took a deep breath and stepped next to Katie, closing her eyes and flipping the switch. After hearing the successful _snap-hiss_, Mary opened her eyes. There, before her, her lightsaber glowed a terrible shade of crimson.

"…" Mary couldn't say anything for a moment, then, "DAMN IT!" was heard loud and clear throughout the audience chamber, scaring some of the younger students into covering their ears.

Tionne was shocked, and Kyp went so far as to back up a few steps. Katie just stared.

Tionne looked to Kyp anxiously, "That's not possible! All the dark crystals were removed to Exar Kun's Temple! You oversaw that yourself!"

"I did," Kyp replied, "And Master Skywalker said all the old dark crystals were stored in the Old Jedi Temple, which is nothing but ruins now."

Mary coughed, "Um… maybe you missed one?"

"It is possible," Kyp stated, "I didn't want to mess with it any more than I had to, I might have missed a few."

Katie, meanwhile, was a whirlwind of thoughts. _Jedi Temple! That's where Mary started going crazy! She _was _hiding something! She found a dark crystal!_ Shooting her friend an icy glare, Katie slipped off the stage and stalked out of the room.

Mary saw the daggers her friend sent her visually and sighed. _What have I done?_ She forced a weak smile at Kyp, who rubbed his temples slowly.

"You are congratulated, Jedi Knight, but you must be wary. Dark crystals are not to be taken lightly. This does not bode well for your future. Be careful." He turned to the audience of shocked apprentices, "You are dismissed!" His tone was like ice. He turned back to Mary, "I am sorry my error has put a shadow your quest."

"Kyp, really, it's not your fault." Mary stated, although she knew she couldn't explain the whole circumstances of the crystal, although Katie had already guessed. Hanging her head, she slowly made her way back to the room she shared with Katie, ready to feel the wrath waiting for her.

-----

"_WHAT IN HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!"_

Mary sunk her head at her friend's anger. It was deserved, and she did not try to fight it. "I knew I should have told you, but I was angry at the time and–"

Katie had begun pacing their small room, "Did you ever once consider that might be the crystal affecting your mind!"

"No… I thought that maybe I was just pissed off at you, or is that not allowed!" Mary had begun getting angry again; she couldn't stop it, but she didn't care anymore. _Katie's not being fair!_

"Mary, you still should have told me," Katie said, beginning to gain control of her voice, "I could've told you it was a dark crystal from the beginning, not to mention where they came from! Those crystals are also called Exar Stones, named for the first Sith Lord that forged the crystals from the blood of his innocent victims. I can't_ believe _that you would–"

"You're overreacting!" Mary said, finally giving up all pretense that she deserved her friend's disappointment, "Maybe I just wanted to find something out for myself for once! I don't need you leading me by the hand throughout the WHOLE DAMN GALAXY!"

"Now I think you're the one that's overreacting. You may not know, but a lightsaber is a perfect reflection of the wielder's character and alignment." Katie stated, calmly falling back into a chair.

Mary stood from the cot she had sat on and took Katie's place pacing the floor, trying to regain control, "But… that would mean… but it can't… I mean… I'm not…" she couldn't bring herself to say whatever it was she should say, but her mind was running wild with the possibilities.

"No, you're not. It's a fluke, it's gotta be." Katie replied, trying to bring her friend all the way down, "All that stuff about the reflection is just a legend, it may not even be true. I just want you to be careful."

Mary slowly sank to her cot, glancing at her lightsaber in her hand, "I'll try." She regretted the words as soon as she said them. Katie quickly looked up, a well-known mirth behind her eyes. Mary put up her hand, "Don't say it, I know. 'Do or do not, there is no try.' Yeah, yeah, but trying's a lot easier!"

Katie laughed, the solemn mood finally overcome. "So then, fellow Jedi, when do you want to leave?"

Mary glanced up, attempting a smile, "The sooner the better. I think Kyp gave me a death wish, so we'd better leave before it has time to take effect."

-----

Mary and Katie finally got Luke's X-Wing into their transport shuttle, fitting it in next to Mary's A-Wing. Kyp and Tionne had just exited the turbolift as the two girls were checking the fuel levels for their next flight.

Kyp smiled, "So, where are our two new Jedi off to now?"

Mary and Katie looked at each other, "Actually," Katie said looking to Mary, "We have no idea where to go."

"I want to go to Hoth!" Mary piped in.

"Anywhere but Hoth." Katie looked annoyed.

"Let's rock-paper-scissors for it."

"Do what?" Kyp looked seriously confused but the two girls were already at it.

"Paper!" Katie shouted.

"Hah, scissors cut paper. I win! Hoth it is!" Mary yelled, jumping up in an exuberant victory dance.

"Shit." Katie said flatly, looking at her hand as if it had betrayed her.

"Hoth it is then," Kyp smiled again, "You carry the hope of all the Jedi with you. Stay safe and return Luke to us."

As Kyp and Tionne turned to leave, Mary told Katie to get everything ready then quickly ran up to Kyp, stepping in front of him, forcing him to stop and pay attention to her, "Ya know, it _really _isn't your fault. Like, really really, not just I'm-trying-to-make-you-feel-better really. Really."

Kyp looked away, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Mary rolled her eyes, "Look, I know you've had a kinda… shady past, but you shouldn't blame yourself for the… uh… incident with my lightsaber's color being a certain bad color that is bad and evil and… yeah."

Kyp turned to look at her, "But the stone you found, I was supposed to get rid of them."

Mary raised her hand, "Look! I know what you did, and I bet you did it fine. Let me just tell you that the damn Exar Stone wasn't from the blasted cave, and that the details of said stone are between me and my copilot over there, so come off it!"

Kyp blinked for a moment, "I see. Well then, that changes some things, but you still must be careful carrying an Exar Stone with you on your journey. Maybe even more so because you didn't receive it honestly." With that, he turned, waved a final time at Katie, and followed Tionne out of the hangar bay.

Katie turned and glanced at her friend as Mary joined her in the cockpit, "What was that all about?"

"Nothing," Mary said, flipping some switches on the console.

Katie huffed, "Don't EVEN try keeping secrets from me again!"

"Fine," Mary said, "I was just explaining to Kyp how he shouldn't feel guilty about my deathsaber because he was all evil and crap."

"Mary! You shouldn't call your lightsaber that!"

"Eh, it fits, no?"

"No," Katie stated seriously as they received the all-clear to exit the hangar bay.

"Finally!" Mary said as she revved the engines and shot the ship out of the hangar into the empty space before them.

"Well, there's no speeders on Hoth." Katie said.

"That's okay!" Mary chirped, "I get a tauntaun!"

"Oh God…" Katie said as the ship sped away into hyperspace.


	4. Of Ice, Snow, and Lonely Tauntauns

**Chapter IV: Of Ice, Snow, and Lonely Tauntauns**

On the barren ice planet of Hoth, a lone, deserted Rebel base still stood. It had become overrun by the elements during the years since the generator had been destroyed by the Empire's attack. Huge icicles hung from every available surface, and a stubborn dry, brown grass grew slowly in the very center of the base where the ice had not fully taken over. The small, furry rodents that managed to inhabit this abandoned structure skittered away in alarm as the hollow echo of strange footfalls and the hum of mechanical wheels sounded throughout the building.

"Honestly, I don't know why you wanted to come here!" One set of footprints said to the other.

The other form sighed, a fine white mist shooting forming with it, "I thought you wanted to hit all of Luke's old haunts, and this seemed as fitting as any."

"It didn't help that your piloting nearly killed us on impact." The form with wheels beeped and hooted in agreement.

"Hey! I don't think you would've seen that snowdrift any quicker than I did! I actually saved the ship."

"Whatever," Katie said as she picked her way through large chunks of ice that had fallen on the floor, trying not to slip anymore than she had to. Pulling her thick parka around her tighter and adjusted her fur-lined hood, she tried to take her mind of the cold. R2-D2 had joined them on the ship, neither of them realizing he came with Luke's X-Wing until he had beeped at them in the cockpit, frightening both girls to no end. He now followed smoothly behind Katie, who was making a small trail through the debris he could roll through easily.

Mary, on the other hand, was slowly falling in love with her surroundings. "Don't you just love the snow?" she asked as she twirled and danced in her shiny surroundings.

"It's not snow, Mary, it's ice. Not nearly as fun," Katie grumbled.

Mary shrugged and skipped off in another direction, heading for the middle of the compound, "Well, snow or not, I'm gonna head for the hangar bay and check it out. We can split up if you want, my communicator's fully charged."

Katie looked to a locked door on her right, a large sign reading 'DETENTION LEVEL' hanging on rusty hinges adorned the metal plating. "I think I'll check this out!" she shouted at Mary, who had already ambled out of her line of site. _I've gotta keep a leash on her or something,_ Katie thought to herself, not unkindly.

Noticing the door was frozen shut with ice and age, Katie quickly snapped it open with a small nudge of the Force. R2 twittered and beeped happily and rolled slowly into the hallway. Smiling to herself, Katie entered cautiously, observing her surroundings. She was in a long corridor whose sides were dotted randomly with metal doors, all of which had been long since rusted shut from the ice caked on the walls. Pulling her hood closer around her face, Katie began walking slowly down the corridor, pausing to scrape ice off some of the windows to peak into random cells. She was getting slightly more nauseous by the minute, because some of the cells contained what looked to be skeletons, and not all of them appeared to be human.

Katie grimaced, "Of course… I bet the Imperials took over this base and kept whatever Rebel survivors in these cells." _They didn't seem to care too much about their prisoners…_ she thought sadly as she noticed several more skeletons. She walked down the corridor further, and just as she decided she should go find Mary, she noticed something that stopped her heart for a moment. At the end of the corridor, the ice had been carefully scraped from a cell door, and the entry controls were still blinking slowly, indicating they were functioning. _This cell has been recently used!_ Katie thought, _But who was kept here?_ She motioned to R2 who activated the door and stepped into the tiny room, and, just as she expected, the room had been recently emptied of ice and debris. The tiny bunk in the room had a relatively clean blanket lying over it, and a dented food tray sat, forgotten, in the corner. R2-D2 made a small, frightened noise, as if to say, _'This can't be good.'_

Katie nodded, "I think I'm beginning to agree with you. She quickly backtracked, trying to find Mary. She didn't notice the small, red eyes that watched her run down the hallway, or how the smile under those eyes contained long, yellow fangs.

-----

Mary hadn't gotten very far. Wandering through the compound she had finally managed to get herself lost, which was not where she had originally planned to go. Finally, she realized where she was. She was standing the communications room, looking just like it did in the movie. Striding over to some high-tech equipment, Mary tried to look like she knew what she was doing. Pressing random buttons, she managed to start the large machine. Activating a screen that said, 'Call Archive' on accident, she looked shocked at what she saw.

If Mary was reading this correctly, someone had sent a communication from this exact spot no less than three weeks ago. "This place is _supposed _to be abandoned," she said to herself softly, "maybe I wasn't so foolhardy in coming here after all."

Just as she was about to grab her communicator and tell Katie what she had discovered, the small machine crackled to life on its own, "Mary? Can you read me?"

Mary smiled, "Loud 'n clear, Captain Commando, what's shaking?"

Katie spoke very quickly, and Mary strained to understand, "I think someone's been here recently. I found a cell in the detention level that had been recently used! Someone had been held captive here!"

"Well," Mary replied, "I just found out that someone sent a communication from this base a couple weeks ago, but I have yet to find out who or what they were trying to…" she trailed off, having heard someone talking in the distance. She strained to listen, and it seemed it was more than one speaker. Being of short attention span, she began walking in the direction of the voices.

"Mary? Are you still there?" came Katie's worried voice over the small speaker.

"Yeah, I'm okay," said Mary, "I just heard voices and wanna go check it out."

"Voices? Mary, honestly, I don't think…" but Mary was too intrigued by this new discovery to pay much attention to her friend. Walking through the echoing hallways, she was finding it difficult to keep track of where the voices were coming from, but she soon found herself in the huge hangar bay. This room contained whatever it was that was talking to her.

Mary walked cautiously into the room, her hand hovering over her lightsaber. She wasn't sure she was ready to use it and unleash its red-tinted fury, but she would rather be safe than sorry. Turning the corner around a large stack of containers, she dropped her hand and laughed to herself for being so uptight. Standing in the middle of the hangar bay, softly munching of the poor excuse for grass, was a small herd of tauntauns. Mary smiled and quickly walked up to the one closest to her, but as soon as the tauntauns registered her presence, they fled to the far side of the hangar.

"Hey, wait!" Mary called after them. To her surprise, the biggest one, which Mary assumed to be the leader, stopped and turned to look in her direction. Slowly and carefully, it walked back over to the girl, who held out her hand, palm up. The creature set its large nose in the small hand and sniffed at it for what seemed like an eternity to Mary.

Mary gathered up her courage and reached up to pet the tauntaun behind the ears, something she was capable of only because the large creature had bent its great neck down considerably. "Hey, big fella," she whispered, trying not to scare it away again.

"Hello, Mary."

Mary jumped, looking around frantically, trying to figure out who had said that. The tauntaun had begun nudging her shoulder with one of its great horns worriedly, and Mary realized with another jump that it had been the _tauntaun_ talking to her. She looked into the eyes of the large animal, and saw a deep glint of intelligence there.

Mary cleared her throat, "Hello there, um… sir. I wasn't aware that you could…"

"Talk?" the tauntaun finished for her.

"Um… yeah," Mary replied, noticing that the rest of the tauntauns were quickly returning, emboldened by their leader's acceptance of this stranger. Mary made a quick head count, coming to a total of twelve tauntauns before she turned back to the one that had addressed her, "So, how did you know my name?"

"We know the names of all who can speak to us; it is the way of things." Mary noticed the tauntaun giving her what she assumed passed for a smile.

"That means most people can't talk to you?" Mary asked.

The tauntaun snorted, "Most people can't, and those who can don't even care for us tauntauns. It has been a great while since I had met someone to talk to that was remotely pleasant."

Mary smiled at the compliment, "So, do any of you have names?"

The great animal shook his head, which was alarming because of his great horns that circled his long ears, "No, none of us were ever named. I am the only one among us that was ever ridden by a human, but he didn't take the time to name me. That was many years ago, when this base was full of people all the time. Now, we just get the occasional visitor, although it has been relatively busy this past month."

"Well, I could name you!" Mary said, hoping to come back to the subject of the other recent visitors later. She looked at the tauntauns in deep thought, noticing the females had smaller, horns that were straighter than the males and that the younger ones also had these horns, so she needn't worry about gender mixing. _Not like they would know if I did, _she thought lightly.

"Okay," she began, "You can be Trixie, you can be Thomas, you can be Travis, you can me Tiffany, you can be Tucker…" she went on like that, thinking herself very clever for giving all the tauntauns names that started with a 'T.' She finally came back to the leader and paused for thought. She had long since ran out of decent 'T' names, and had actually named two of the other tauntauns 'Toboggan' and 'Tea Kettle.' She decided to actually give the leader a passable name, and she thought hard. "I know!" she finally said, "You can be Tongo!"

Tongo gave her the tauntaun smile again, "Yes, these are all fine names, thank you Mary."

Mary was about to pursue the subject of the other people that had come to the base before them, when Katie herself walked into the hangar bay with R2 tooting loudly at the sight of Mary, scaring off the tauntauns for the second time, leaving Mary alone with a worried-looking Tongo.

"Mary? Are you okay? I've been trying to get you on the communicator for _ages!"_ Katie said, walking up to her friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, this is my friend, Tongo," Mary said, gesturing to the tauntaun next to her, who had calmed down visibly since Mary deemed Katie as a friend, turning to Tongo, she said, "Tongo, this is my friend, Katie."

Katie looked to the tauntaun, "Nice to meet you." She them turned on her friend, "What was that second thing you said?"

"What thing?" Mary asked.

Tongo leaned over to Mary, "I can't understand what this 'Katie' said. She is not one of those who can speak to us."

"Aww… that's sad, I was hoping you guys could be friends," Mary said to the tauntaun.

"There! You said it again!" Katie said quickly.

"What?" Mary asked, extremely confused now.

"Whenever you talk to the tauntaun, or, Tongo… you're using a different language! Do you honestly not know it?" Katie's eyes grew wide, "Of course you don't know! You have a Jedi gift! Mary, you're so lucky!"

Mary thought about it for a moment, and she realized she _had _been talking strangely to the tauntauns. It had seemed perfectly normal at the time, but now she began to recognize the strange, rushed syllables and odd accentuation that must be this 'gift' Katie was talking about. "So, what does this mean?" Mary asked her friend.

"I guess you can communicate with animals; I bet tauntauns aren't the only ones. This is the same gift that Jacen has!" Katie said, looking a little upset.

Mary understood at once, "Katie, it's okay. I'm sure you have some awesome Jedi skill that I suck at, and I bet it kicks the snot outta mine. I mean, honestly, you can already understand most of what Artoo says without the translator."

Katie smiled, "Whatever you say. So, did the tauntauns say anything interesting?"

Mary looked around and noticed the rest of the tauntauns had eagerly returned. "Lemme check," she said quickly, "They said some other people had been here recently, and I was gonna check for a description."

Mary looked to Tongo and the rest of the tauntauns, "I heard you mention something about visitors coming here recently, would you care to tell me about them?"

Travis walked up to her, having been given leeway by Tongo in the way of a small nod, "Well, about a couple months ago, two people had arrived here, although we couldn't get a good visual of either of them. Our… instincts told us to stay away."

"Instincts?" Mary asked.

Tongo took up this one, "We tauntauns, and most animals, I understand, are able to sense whether people's ambition are for good or evil. We felt negative emotions from one of these people, so we stayed hidden away from both of them."

"Interesting," Mary mumbled, and quickly translated it what had been said for Katie's benefit.

"Well, ask if they have seen anyone else sense then," Katie replied, after hearing the whole story.

Mary quickly put forward the question, and a younger tauntaun, Toboggan, by the look of it, walked forward. "No less than a month ago, another man came to the base, but this was long after the first two had left. He seemed a lot nicer than the others, so we greeted him when he came to the base."

"He was really nice!" said the young female tauntaun named Trixie, "He gave us some food and _everything!_ I hadn't had a decent chunk of bread in _years! _He also left us a few blankets, which was nice because even we tauntauns can feel the chill after a while." Trixie shook her fur coat and offered the smile Mary had begun to recognize from the tauntauns.

Mary smiled at her kid-like comments, "Yes, that's awesome for you, but what did he look like?"

"Um…" Trixie said, thinking very hard.

"Oh, I know!" Toboggan blurt out, trying to please the new person, "He was about this tall," he stretched his nose upward to what Mary guessed to be about six feet, "And he had hair the color of dried mud. He also wore all black, just like her!" On the last word, he shoved his nose in Katie's direction.

Mary's heart was racing, "Did he carry something like this?" she asked, holding out her lightsaber.

Toboggan sniffed it quickly and crumpled his nose, "Yeah, I think so, although his smelled a little… better."

Mary quickly reattached her lightsaber to her belt; _I bet his would smell better._ She quickly turned to Katie, "It was him! It was Luke for sure! They identified his clothes like yours and the fact that he had a lightsaber. He was also way nice to them, which most people wouldn't be from the sounds of it."

"That's great!" Katie said, "And to think, I thought the idea of coming to Hoth was nuts! How lucky is that! We found Luke's trail on the first try, and it's only a month old! I'd almost call _that _a Jedi gift in itself."

"Do you want to go check out the communication then? I couldn't quite figure out how to tell who was talking to who, although I guess Luke must've been using it now. I got to the screen at all on accident," Mary asked.

Katie nodded, "Sure, we can check it out. I bet Artoo can find the source in a minute." R2 blurted something that sounded offended. Katie rolled her eyes, "Fine, Artoo can do it in few seconds, tops." Artoo beeped happily as he headed for the control room.

"Okay, just hang on a minute," Mary quickly turned to Tongo and the other tauntauns, quickly explaining who the man was that they met and why Katie and herself were looking for him. The nodded thoughtfully throughout the story and Mary was pleased to have such an interested audience.

"So, you can see why I'll have to be leaving in a little while. I'm very sorry I couldn't hang out with you guys more, it's been way fun," she finished, hoping not to make the tauntauns upset. They had seemed to happy to have someone to talk to.

Tongo leaned forward and looked in her eyes, and Mary was again stunned by the amount of age and wisdom she found there, "Mary, Jedi Knight, do not feel you have offended us with your quick visit. Know, rather, that you have given us hope. The sooner you and your friend bring the Imperials down, the sooner more people can join us here. I do hope, however, that you will come yourself with the time comes."

"Oh, of course!" Mary said quickly, throwing her arms around the great animal, "I'll miss you guys!" She then turned and followed Katie, who had waited with her friend with a wry smile growing on her face.

Once in the control room, the two girls found R2-D2 chattering away happily with the computer, the familiar computer jack already produced and turning rapidly in the computer port. The screen flashed through older communications, and then landed on the one Mary had discovered, now known to have been sent by Luke. R2 quickly switched the screen to another one that said 'Tracking Communication.' Katie watched as a small bar appeared at the bottom of the screen, growing larger by the second. The results of R2's search were loading on the screen.

"This almost seems too easy," Katie said, "As soon as we figure out where he was sending this message, we can know where to look next."

"Don't jinx it," said Mary.

"Oh, come on! You know that's all a bunch of luck and nonsense!"

"I wouldn't be so sure," Mary said, pointing to the screen.

Katie looked and noticed the loading bar had frozen, and that the screen was becoming fuller of static and glitches by the second. "Oh crap!" she cried, lunging for R2 and yanking him free before the whole computer went haywire and sent shocks of electricity in all direction before finally giving up with a small puff of smoke.

"What a piece of junk!" Mary yelled, running over and kicking the side of the machine, producing a large dent.

"I don't think so," Katie said, setting R2 upright, "I think someone didn't want us knowing who Luke was talking to."

"Well, that was obviously whoever he was communicating with," Mary said, balancing on one foot while letting the pain in the dent-producing one settle down.

Katie looked at the smoking piece of technology and sighed, noticing that she had been doing that a lot lately, "That still doesn't explain who was in the holding cell. Luke was alone, and he would be living in his ship, not that he would want to spend the night in a cell anyway."

"What about the other people the tauntauns mentioned? They said there were two of them, and that one of them gave off negative vibes," said Mary.

"Of course!" Katie said, "Then whoever the evil guy was must've had a prisoner! That's who was kept in the cell, and _that's_ who Luke is trying to find!"

"That makes sense," said Mary, "But I'm getting that feeling that this is way too easy… again."

Katie shrugged, as she began to lead Mary and R2-D2 out of the abandoned base to where their ship was waiting for them, "Maybe, but why complain about it? You don't wanna jinx this mission anymore that I do."

Mary reached the exit door first and slid it open with a nudge from the Force, "Yeah, I know, but…" Mary trailed into nothingness, looking behind Katie with a shocked look on her face, "MOVE!" Mary dove at her friend, driving her out of the way as she felt a searing pain spread across her back and shoulders, "Ouch…"

"Mary! What..?" Then Katie saw it. Standing over her friend with fresh blood dripping from it's one clawed arm, was a huge, white monster, its fanged mouth stretching into a massive roar. The wompa stepped forward, wanting to end its kill and have a fresh dinner.

Mary picked herself up, her face set in a firm grimace from the pain and the feeling of warm blood dripping down her back. Katie stood also, instantly reaching for her lightsaber and confronted the creature. Enraged by the humming beam of light, the creature dove forward once more. Katie smoothly sidestepped around it, but Mary's mind wasn't comprehending thought that fast just yet. Instead of reaching for her own saber or dodging out of the way, she panicked and sent a great surge of Force at the wompa, pushing it back against the far wall.

The wompa then gave up on Mary, turning to Katie, it reached out its massive claw to make at least one kill, but Katie was working a little better than Mary had. Acting on instinct, she dodged and shot her arm at the monster in an upward thrust. With a satisfactory hiss, the turquoise blade seared off the wompa's other arm. Katie was about to finish it off, when a flash of red light shot past her face and into the wompa's chest. The creature gave one last defiant cry before falling to the ground in a lifeless heap. Mary stepped over to the corpse, blowing on the barrel of her blaster.

"Bitch," Mary said smoothly as she kicked it once in the side for good measure.

Katie rolled her eyes at her friend's theatrics as she bent to study the monster, "Hey, you know what? This is the same wompa that attacked Luke in episode five! Isn't that cool?"

"Yeah, I guess," Mary said as she slowly began walking to the ship waiting for them right outside the door, "Can we just go?"

Katie hissed in sympathy as she saw the long, jagged claw marks on her friend's back, still oozing blood slowly, "Maybe we should do something about that first."

Mary narrowed her eyes in pain as fresh snow from outside fell into her wound, slowly giving her a case of frostbite to match, "Yeah, that might be a good idea."

Katie nodded and looked at Mary's injury. The cut wasn't too deep; Mary's many warm layers had kept the wompa's claws from doing any serious injury, but it still needed to be closed before infection set it. "Alright, but I'm not so sure how to do this…" Katie closed her eyes and gently set her hands on the wound, gaining a small hiss of pain from Mary. Sending her friend a silent apology, Katie began sending slow waves of the Force at the wound, trying to somehow seal it shut. She felt like she was relaxing a little, and then was stuck in a trance, whispering words she didn't recognize herself. After a few moments, she snapped out of it and saw perfectly healed skin where the gash was. Mary wouldn't even gain a scar from this venture, something she would have the nerve to complain about later in their journey.

Mary rotated her shoulders and smiled, "Awesome! That feels as good as new, and do I even need to mention that I think we found your Jedi talent?"

Katie smiled softly, "Yeah, I was kinda looking for it, and I realized that what I was doing wasn't entirely… from me."

R2.D2 beeped something incomprehensible. Katie nodded, "Yeah, we really should get back to the ship. Who knows how many wompas this fella fathered over the years?"

Mary really didn't want to think about it, and quickly changed the subject, "I still think being able to talk to a rolling garbage can is some measure of a Jedi talent."

Katie laughed, the first time she had all day. She quickly walked up the ramp into their ship, Mary close behind, "In any case, I am SO picking where we go next, since we weren't able to figure out where Luke went from the control room."

"So, where were you thinking?" asked Mary as she sat in the pilot's chair.

Katie sent her friend a grin as she took the copilot's seat and began activating the engines, "Well, if there's a bright center to the universe, I was thinking the planet that is farthest from."

The ship took off slowly and began picking up speed as it headed to the atmosphere, "Ugh," Mary said, "Tatooine is way too hot. Why would you wanna go there anyway?"

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy," Katie replied, truly having a good time with this.

Mary rolled her eyes, "Will you stop with the Star Wars quotes?"

"Fine," Katie said, helping guide the ship into the proper range for hyperspace travel, "We decided a while ago to check all of Luke's old haunts. What better place to check than where he grew up? Besides, he's probably already been there, maybe someone picked up some info on him before he left. You know how smugglers and bounty hunters love to talk."

Mary perked up a little at the prospect of meeting some smugglers and bounty hunters, and Katie felt she could address a mild concern that she had realized back at the cave, "Mary… I noticed how you were… uh… unwilling to use your lightsaber back with the wompa and everything…" Katie regretted mentioning it instantly, when Mary's appearance went from normal to slightly anxious and mildly angry.

"I don't think–" Mary began with a tone of anger, but was cut off by a loud clanking in the back of the ship, "What the…?" She quickly set the ship on autopilot as she ran to the storage closet, which they had kept nearly empty. Katie was right behind her as she activated the door.

They both jumped back as a six-foot tall animal tumbled from the closet and began breathing heavily. "I thought I would _never _get out of there!" it whined.

Mary started laughing hysterically, "_Toboggan!_ What are you doing here?" Katie just stared, knowing she couldn't understand her friend or the tauntaun she was talking to.

"Well," Toboggan began sheepishly, "I didn't want you to leave, but you said you had to, so I thought I could go with you, and Tongo said I could and… I missed you! Please don't take me back!" With that, he placed his large head on Mary's chest, demanding to be petted behind the ears.

Mary obliged, still taking in this new development, "Well, I guess if Tongo said you could, then it's alright with me if you stay."

"Yay!" he said in a childish way. He returned to the closet and sat on the floor, where he had pulled several blankets from the top shelf, "I can stay in here and out of your way, as long as this door stays open."

Mary nodded and set the door to remain open, looking to Katie, she shrugged and grinned, "I guess we have a stowaway, and who am I to deny a tauntaun a little fun?"

Katie groaned, "As long as you feed him and clean up after him…"

Mary squealed with joy as she ran back to the cockpit and began setting the coordinates for hyperspace travel, "Ya know," she began, "Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dustin' crops, boy!"

Katie sat in the copilot chair slowly, "This is gonna be a long flight." With that, the ship disappeared into hyperspace, carrying two girls, a hyper tauntaun, and one perky droid with it.


End file.
